Clever Easter Egg Dyeing Tricks

I've been seeing a lot of great Easter crafty goodness here on the interwebs lately, so I wanted to share. The technique above is my absolute fave - these eggs, spied on Craft, were made by using electrical tape to create stripes. That's genius! Great results that look pretty fancy, but this would be so easy to do!

Design Sponge also featured an egg-dyeing stroke of genius:


This technique would be more time-consuming than the electrical tape one, but still looks quite easy to do. It's a simplified version of the traditional Ukrainian hot beeswax technique, which I wrote about last Easter. Design Sponge has a full-on, step by step tutorial that makes it look like a cinch!

Do you have any plans to dye eggs this Easter? What's your preferred method?

Quirky Valentine Idea #2: Monsters!

Tamara of Art, Adventures and Toddler has made *the cutest* Valentines ever! Yes, I mean that. The cutest Valentines in the history of all Valentines. I can't get over how silly-cute they are! I was alerted to this tutorial by the always on top of it folks at Craftzine. I highly suggest you subscribe to their e-newsletter or blog feed if you haven't already; it is awesome.

Tamara has kindly put up a full tutorial on how she makes these cards, so you can make some with your own delightful little characters.

And not to worry if you have a sewing machine aversion, you could sew these by hand or skip the sewing all-together & just opt for glue. I think the stitching definitely adds to the cuteness factor, though.

If you're finding yourself short on time to get Valentines made, check out my printable birdy Valentines, Fun Freebies I made just for you! xoxoxo

Fun Freebie: My Birdy Valentines

Some little birds for all the lovelies in your life. You can download a sheet of them from my Fun Freebies Flickr set & print your own. How sweet!

A Hand-carved Steckpyramide & Other Christmas Delights

Patrick's mom, Helga, has recently passed down many of the traditional German Christmas decorations that Patrick grew up with to us, including this beautiful steckpyramide. If you've never seen one of these in person, it's really pretty because once the candles heat up, the whole pyramid starts spinning on its own. There are fan blades at the top which you can see more clearly in the photo of our whole bar below.

All of the little figures are hand-carved and in their original boxes from the workshop she bought them at in Germany. Helga bought these sometime in the late 60s, we think. She had recently wed Patrick's dad & moved from her home of Juegesheim in central Germany to Houston, Texas - can you imagine the culture shock?!

For some reason, that little tree stump is my favorite - it's just so darn cute!

Here's a wider shot showing our makeshift mantelpiece, since we don't have a fire place in this house (click for larger view). I think the bar makes a pretty good substitute, although I do miss cuddling up by the fire on cold evenings. We've got our quirky, mismatched snowman stockings hanging from it, lights draped all around, and some silver & blue paper chains I made many years ago when we got our first live Christmas tree for the apartment we were living in in Seattle & were a little short on decorations! The tree took up the whole living room, but it was beautiful. ahh, memories... There's also a little ceramic Christmas tree, complete with working lights, that my mom made for us. I love it; seems like all the ladies in my family had these when I was growing up, so it's a lovely bit of nostalgia for me.

We've also got a humongous bowl of tasty pecans from my parents' tree. yum! and yes, that is a lobster cracker not a nut cracker, but it works just the same!

We've got a little collection of decorative nutcrackers, too, also courtesy of Helga. The one in front with his majestic red coat & fluffy beard is my favorite, but he's a mass-produced item from a German department store. The one behind him with the brown hat is a handmade, one-of-a-kind nutcracker, so he's a really special one.

Here's our new ornament for 2009 - an awesome glittery, aqua blue(!) reindeer, purchased on clearance for about $2. Gotta love that! It's a little tradition of ours to pick out one new ornament for our tree together every year - but just one. So we have to pick carefully (and I'm always partial to glittery reindeer). Many of the other ornaments are hand-me-downs from friends & family, so we have an eclectic assortment of old & new. They're all in various shades of blue & silver though, which I think looks absolutely gorgeous on our white tree, which was also a major clearance deal. It's a floor model we got for about $20 at Home Depot one year the day after Christmas, right after deciding that live trees were too hard on our sinuses and we needed to go with fake trees from then on - very serendipitous! We weren't even shopping for a tree, but how could we pass up that deal?

Hope you've enjoyed a peek at our home all decked out for the season. Happy Holidays & the very merriest 2010 to you & yours!

4 days 'til Christmas! {plus identity issues}

I hope you're relishing this beautiful time of year and spending time with those you love. I'm definitely enjoying a deliberately slower pace of life this week. The WonderCraft is now {mostly} on hiatus until the new year, so I've been able to spend more time with P (my hubs), going to movies, trying new restaurants and strolling through shops looking for gifts and then wrapping them with love (I love wrapping gifts!). Wanted to share a couple of online joys with you today...

First up, how unbelievably cute is that little gingerbread house perched on a mug?! I first saw it on Craftzine, where I go for my daily dose of crafty goodness. Head over to not martha for more cute pics & the full tutorial.

And secondly, The UK Times Online has just published their list of 50 of the world's best design blogs. A few blogs that I read almost daily were awarded this honor, well-deserved. I've spent this morning checking out the others on the list and adding several to my ever-growing left sidebar here. I encourage you to check them out for some serious eye-candy & inspiration!

The blogs on the list, such as pia jane bijkerk, really inspire me to re-think Crafty Mishmash... which puts me in a bit of a funk. I feel like what I'm doing here is at odds with my true style and design aesthetic, and I'm always trying to fine tune things for a more harmonious blend of my playful, whimsical Snuggle Herd work and "the real me" which is still playful & whimsical, but more romantic/dreamy/retro/sophisticated (I think). Seems like I've been struggling with this disconnect throughout my entire art/design/craft career, with my work always coming out with a more clunky, childlike look than I would like.

The photo above, found in pia jane bijkerk's kids' gift guide, of the darling little girl is from Mette, an Etsy shop based in Vancouver. I love the styling of their photos! I want to move toward this type of look in my photography for my Snuggle Herd products. Adorable children modeling the clothes definitely changes the mood and tone of the pics. They look classic, timeless and so sweet! Obviously my clothing designs are not quite the same, but I think I could come up with something along these lines that works for my designs. If I can find some kids to model for me, and talk P into doing a whole slew of new photos, of course.

And so I may be tweaking Crafty Mishmash a lot in the coming days, so bear with me. It's just that I often look at my blog and think, "this isn't really me." Know what I'm sayin'???

DIY Shimmery, Snowy Candles

Look at these beautiful candles! You wouldn't believe how simple they are to make: Take some pillar candles & coat them with Mod Podge, then roll them in a tray of epsom salts. That's it! Isn't that a nifty trick? Emily shared this super-crafty how-to on her blog, Remodeling This Life.

I found the link over on another lovely blog, The Inspired Room, where Melissa shared her own beautifully simple idea for epsom salt "snow" in a jar. Wow! So easy and so festive, yet not Christmas-y. I like that you could decorate with these candles throughout the entire winter. Thanks for the great ideas, ladies!

Unique & Practical Winter Gift Ideas

Wonderful holiday gift guides abound online, so instead of making my own gift guide, I just wanted to highlight a few inspiring gift ideas I've seen on the web lately. Any of these would be gifts I'd love to receive (hint, hint!) because they are all about making the cold days of winter more comfy-cozy. I've also put links to a few of the coolest gift guides I've found at the end of this post. Enjoy!

The Woodland Draft Buster from Betz White is so cute! You can find the pattern in her book, Sewing Green. The book itself would make a lovely gift for someone crafty, but if you have the time, why not buy the book as a gift to yourself & whip some draft dodgers up for your loved ones? Helping them stay warm & cozy this winter would be a wonderful gift.















This next project is totally tempting me, because my skin gets horribly dry during the winter. I'm sure you have someone on your list who also suffers this winter affliction, so how about making them an indulgent brown sugar scrub?

Find the incredibly simple instructions on Craftzine and get to it! This is one that children will love making, too. Mix it up, put it in a jar & use fabric scraps & ribbon to pretty it up - so easy!






Lastly, a fashionable & functional classic: a pretty scarf. This scarf has a twist though: it's made from an old sweater (yay, upcycling!) & gathered using a long ribbon (clever!), so that it has a very ruffly look. How pretty is this? and it looks like it would keep your neck nice and warm (very important for short-haired girls like me)! This project is another one from the amazing folks at Craftzine. Check out the Sew a Ruffled Scarf post for a detailed how-to. Don't be scared; it actually seems very simple to make as long as you have basic sewing skills.

Wouldn't any of these make a fantastic, thoughtful gift? Sure wish I had started on them earlier... maybe I'll be able to make some gifts for Christmas 2010, if I start now! Oh well, if you're in a time crunch like me, you can still find tons of fabulous gifts online by checking out the gift guides below. Or better yet, shop at your local craft shows & support handmade! If you're in Austin, come out & see me at Cherrywood Art Fair this weekend!

Great Holiday Gift Guide Roundup 09:
- under $50 gift guide from design*sponge {they have many gift guides to browse; see their full list}
- Slow Holiday gift guide from Treehugger
- and of course, there's a plethora of gift guides on Etsy!

Happy shopping &/or making! Please leave links to your fave gift guides or DIY gift ideas in the comments!

Crafty, Upcycled Wreaths

Here are some fabulous ideas from Alpha Mom for creating unique holiday wreaths from materials you probably already have around the house. I saw these in the Craft daily digest, my fave e-newsletter chronicling the online crafting universe. I'm sure I won't have time to make any of these this month, as I am so busy, busy, but I hope you will try them!


Alpha Mom has written a very detailed post with great pics & how-tos for wreaths made of recycled items like toilet paper tubes and plastic lids, even one using painted ping pong balls!

My favorite wreath, a most surprisingly elegant one, is made from a plastic milk jug! Be sure to check out Alpha Mom's post for the full tutorial on each type of wreath.

Halloween Costume '09: The Making Of & Final Pics!

Here I am with my handsome man, Patrick, all dolled up for the Mixx & Make Pre-Halloween Craftacular last Saturday night. We had a great time at the par-tay & people kept saying he looked like Frank Sinatra. Check out all the fun photobooth pics from Trevor Ray Thompson - they are fabulous!



In this post I'll walk you through how I made my Roaring Twenties costume. It was not very difficult because I started with this amazing beaded dress that had a very Twenties feel to it, except that the silhouette of the dress was all wrong. Also, it did not fit me at all (as in I couldn't get it over my rear end without ripping it).

The dress was a floor-length, fitted gown that was meant to cling to the body, with a low back & straps that criss-crossed across the back. The front had a deep v-neck & built-in, padded bra cups.








I neglected to get good pictures of the dress before I altered it, but it looked something like this (on someone who could fit into it):















Obviously it was all wrong for a decade known for a less feminine, decidedly not clingy, silhouette with short hemlines. The style of the day is epitomized in this picture from 1926 of the beautiful actress, Alice Joyce:

From my extensive research on the subject of 1920s fashion, I have learned that the evening gowns of the day usually consisted of a plain slip dress with a sheer overlay (which was often beaded). The original dress that I bought was made of a sheer material onto which all of the beadwork was applied, and the dress was fully lined with peacock blue satin (or something similar). The beaded overlay could easily be detached. That's why I knew that I could make something out of that floor-length evening dress when I saw it hanging on the rack at the vintage store, even though it didn't fit & it was kinda Dynasty-like.

I found this gorgeous vintage slip (circa 1965, I think) at Big Bertha's, another great vintage store in town. This slip did fit me, very well in fact. The slip was meant to be my undergarment for the sheer beaded overlay, but I love it so much that I didn't want to ruin it in the process. I had to design the overlay to be worn as a dress that hung independently from my shoulders, rather than sewn to the slip in any way.


So I had some major reworking to do. The first thing I did was separate the beaded overlay from the lining of the dress. I removed it from the entire column of the dress, but left the extra lining in the bust area intact so that it would not be sheer. I removed the padded bra cups because the 20s were all about minimizing the bust, not enhancing it.

Instead of ripping the seams, I opted to cut the lining away, leaving the seams intact. This left some of the lining material attached to the edges of the sheer overlay material. I did this because I knew the sheer material would be difficult to sew by itself, because it is so delicate & flimsy and frays easily.

Then I ripped open the seams on each side of the beaded overlay. I was left with a front piece and a back piece that were totally separated.

I cut off about 20 inches of the overlay at this point, taking the hemline from floor-length to about knee-length. The beads were tied on with a knot after every second bead, so although tons fell off during the making of this dress, they didn't all just go cascading to the floor when I cut the fabric.

I then used the lining material to make 2 side panels for my new flapper-style dress. Patrick helped me pin the panels in place while I was wearing both the slip and the overlay. I brought the overlay up in the front & back so that it just covered the top edges of the slip (the original dress had a much lower back). We figured out that I could just make the panels the same width all the way down, except for the very top of the dress. The beaded overlay wrapped around me more right under my armpits. We also figured out how much I would need to shorten the original straps of the beaded dress to make the new flapper dress hang the way I wanted it to. I glued the panels in place with Fabri-tac first, because I knew it would be a nightmare trying to sew them in. The glue holding everything in its place made it a lot easier to sew.

Instead of cutting off the straps, I decided to just sew them in place at the correct length, but leave them hanging down the back of the dress. I knotted them for a decorative touch. I liked the way this little detail looked (plus, it saved me a lot of time & work!). Too bad I didn't get a picture of the back of the dress while I was wearing it; would've been easier to see the straps.


That's about it. I shaped up the hem a bit after trying the dress on again over the slip. I cut it a little on the choppy side & made it short enough for that fantastic knife-pleated hemline of the black slip to show through. I left the cut edge raw & just let it fray. The look of the imperfect hem meshed quite nicely with the messy-ish side seams with their visible bits of the original lining. There were lots of beads missing here & there which the perfectionist in me wanted to sew back on, but luckily Patrick saved me from myself & reminded me that it was just a Halloween costume! All in all, I was very happy with how it turned out.

Stay tuned for a post about my hair, makeup & accessories later this week.

Halloween Costume '09: Details

I finished my costume today! Whew! I can't show you yet, because I wanna debut my look at the Mixx & Make Pre-Halloween Craftacular tomorrow night! But here's a little peek at some of the details.



I felt like a contestant on Project Runway, but without Tim Gunn around to provide me with his words of wisdom. And no shopping spree at Mood, sadly. I was definitely just trying to "make it work" and I think I did!


It turned out pretty fabulous & I'm super-excited to wear it to the party. I will post pics afterwards - promise! Have a great weekend!

Halloween Costume '09: Rippin' Seams & Takin' Names

Last night I cut out the lining of my dress & today I set to rippin' seams!



The dress, before:
It will soon be transformed into my Roaring Twenties costume! Let's hope I can pull off this spectacular feat by Saturday so that I can wear it to the Mixx & Make Pre-Halloween Craftacular!